klaipeda
by shannaros
Summary: /-Karin, The Red Queen-/ Such a strange name for such a regal princess. Such a strange child-such a strange scarlet princess.


**n1:Might be a bit OOC on the Queen's part.**

**n2:First published crossover**

**title: klaipeda**

* * *

Not a pretty place. Not a pretty place at all. Orange skies with bright chartreuse sun, the grass grows exponentially fast but it's never soft enough to roll over or even to rest on.

(It's so prickly. Sticky and mucky. Grass is not fun to roll over on.)

It's black with long grey stalks that come up to tickle the faces of anyone who dares to walk through it. The trees that sprout from it- though fruit bearing- hold nothing but vaeryn fruits and yerns.

[How does one expect her to eat the sandy wheat grains and the bulbous bitterness of the lumped-crumped-dumped fruit? She was a Queen! ]

She refused to eat their produce, she refused to drink the sap that dropped from the Limpus tree, but she was not above using the spindly roots to build herself the only shelter she could create. She would starve or die of thirst, but in no time was she planning to die at the claws of one of the predators that lurked the Outlands at night.

A Red Queen soaked in red.

The irony.

The woman, in the current moment, found herself pressed against the inner walls of the tree, her back pressed against the blue of the bark. A small lantern dangled from the ceiling, a tiny wisp of a flame dancing back and forth. All was quiet in the base of the tree. The Queen, not normally a quiet person, hadn't spoken for going-on a month. Not since the Knave-

A shake of her head didn't get the man out of her thoughts and as she looked up at the loose set of enchanted handcuffs around her wrist, images of that dark haired savior-traitor-[was he a lover as well?] Jack of all Needs returned to the forefront of her mind.

An empty cuff dangled in the front of her, the emptiness taunting her with a loose O.

He'd yanked his arm out, tried to kill her, tried to kill her, tried to kill her, tried to kill her. He'd tried to kill her, before breaking his arm out of the pieces of metal that bound them together. (Broken free of the metal, certainly. Broken free of her-never. Her sibling, though hated she was, was not completely cruel or stupid.) The Knave, who had been freed from metallic bondage, found himself unable to drift more than a few miles away from the Queen.

The man found himself bound to the woman eternally.

_Until death do you part:_

The shattering of the metal had awakened the voice, the voice gave them the line and he had taken those words to heart. She was not safe, she was never safe- _never safe, live in fear, time to bleed out all your tears._

"Where's the girl?" A voice floated inside, making the Queen aware of another presence beside her own. Her head turned a fraction of an inch and there he was, standing in the entrance of the hovel with all the dignity a man stripped of all honor, position and glory could manage.

And somehow, he managed it.

"Where's the girl?" Knave repeated again, his voice flat and cold. A slow point of her finger revealed the small figure curled up in a corner. Red sprouted from her head, cascading down her back with a grace that the Queen could only hope to imitate while her dark lashes grazed her pale skin as she blinked awake. The elder woman both gazed and glared at the girl; looking at all that she possessed with such a hunger that the discarded royalty wanted to both strangle and cherish the teen.

The moment of mixed adoration was unable to continue for as soon as the child woke completely, she was yanked over to the Queen and dropped at her feet, hatred bleeding out of the dark eyes of the Knave.

"Place her in perfect health. I want her spotless for what I have planned for her next." His lips curled up in a grim smile, "Afterwards, you are to report to my room as usual."

The child made no indication that she heard any of what had been ordered of her and as she was slapped, the Queen retreated back into bark more, her eyes trembling in fear as the wide scarlet eyes of the girl turned to look at the man before she began pulling up her sleeve.

Her skin, marred with the scars of the life, the Queen hoped she'd never have to live, was placed in front of her, held out so that the woman could bite away and drain the girl of her life. A snort and smirk came from the disgraced warrior and he turned on his heels, stepping off to the small offset area that he called his own.

The Queen looked from the girl to skin, her eyes unsure. "Child….."

(She had never been one for sympathy, empathy or any of that sort. Off with her head was her means of dealing with topics she could not control.]

But she did not have that here, and a flush of fear for both herself and the girl in front jolted her to take the girl's pale skin before gazing into her vivid eyes. Oh, if her parents had only _dared _to have another child after her sister, this girl would've been it. The grace of Mirana and the boldness of Iracebeth composed this girl.

This girl- the Scarlet Princess .

"Milady, it has been ordered, please, bite me." Her voice, soft, but firm made the Queen look at her with weak eyes. The voice, so soft, yet not innocent, not foolish, but mature and understanding made her want to break, to snap and confess to this child, the girl that had become her aide in her time of need. The limb was pressed to her lips further, the girl's intention clear and firm leaving her no option but to take it.

A soft moan slipped through the girl's lips as Iracebeth- she was no Queen. Not anymore- took from the girl what was rightfully hers. Moments passed, but time was irrelevant to them both. It no longer had any semblance of meaning or of importance.

They had nowhere to go but to the grave.

The limb fell from her mouth, and she gazed as the girl took a deep breath and hefted herself off the ground, adjusting the taffeta she wore alongside those strange leg waisted boots.

"Child…what is your name?" Iracebeth's voice was soft, still holding that need to confess. The teen looked back at the huddled woman, stopping her motions to the room.

"Karin."

Karin? Such a strange name for such a strange child. The woman nodded her understanding before looking at the _shouldbePrincess _Karin the urge finally becoming will.

"He tried."

"He tries. He keeps you alive."

"He keeps me alive to kill me." The former Queen shivered and shuddered. "He tried to kill me before you came along."

Karin's lips twisted into a grim smile, her eyes darkening, "You're not alone Milady. Mine tried to kill me as well."

And with that she turned on her heels and dropped down the hole into the small room, going to meet her fate while the Queen shivered in a corner.

_My Princess. They tried to kill us all._

**_fin_**


End file.
